May 26, 2013 Mission Life Week 17

Another full week has come and past. Full in that it was 7 days long and full as in there were so many things that happened I can't possibly tell them all in one email. We had a devotional with two members of the Quorum of the 70, President Clayton and President Wilson. On the way over we passed through an intersection without any stop lights (not having a stop light in an intersection is extremely common, much more common than having proper regulation or stop signs, which everyone ignores anyway). Pretty much the way these types of intersections work is that people just go. They don't wait for a space to open up or until no one is coming, you just go.

 In any case, we were riding in a line of 4, heading across the city when the 3 elders in front of me went through an intersection in front of me where a car was coming through perpendicularly. The car stopped of course, but somehow must not have seen me at the end of the line because when the elder in front of me passed the car went. Unfortunately, I was still in front of him. He hit my back tire hard enough for me to lose control and hit the curb ahead of me. No worries, I didn't even fall off, but when he braked hard after hitting me, he was rear-ended by a couple of motos who weren't really paying attention. Fun stuff those traffic accidents.

Cambodians aren't very subtle. If they think you're a little overweight they will tell you that you are fat and laugh at you. If they think your Khmer is horrible, they will tell you and then your companion will have to translate for you and tell you what wording they used to describe how bad your grammar is. Another thing thing that the Cambodians don't have much subtlety for: haircuts. Or maybe my Khmer really is that bad. Anyway, we walked in, I told them I wanted it a little short, and the first stroke of the razor took off a little more hair than I was expecting. My haircut is a little closer to a marine haircut than a missionary haircut, but no big deal. Really, it's kind of nice.

Good luck with school getting out! I'm going to try and send some pictures now with stories to go with them! Love y'all!

Yesterday was my very first baptism and it was an absolute mess. First one was Om Tol, who was baptized by the branch president with his left arm raised instead of his right. And with me as witness! Super embarrassing. Unfortunately, by the time we raised the alarm, the next group was already in the font. Then, Bong Kuntia was baptized by my companion with the wrong wording but the only person who noticed was Elder Garlick in the back of the room, so yet again, the next person was already in the water before we figured everything out. The prayer for Sao Li was said twice but this time I had D&C 20:73 (In Khmer) out and open so we did it right. Then we did Om Tol again, and then finished with Kuntia, who had changed out of her baptismal clothing before she learned it needed to be done again. Next week we have another baptism and I will learn from this one! Picture from left to right is me, the Branch President, Om Tol, Sao Li, Elder Edmunds and Kuntia